Automobiles, including, cars and trucks, have long included entertainment systems. In particular, automobiles have long included radio tuners, compact disk players, and other means of delivering audio entertainment to passengers. Either a knob or buttons on the steering wheel typically control the volume of entertainment systems.
An automotive navigation system is a satellite navigation system designed for use in automobiles. A navigation system typically uses a global positioning system (GPS) navigation device to acquire position data to locate the automobile on a road in the unit's map database. Using the map database, the unit can give directions to other locations along roads also in its database.
In some automobiles, the entertainment system is coupled to the navigation system. This allows the navigation system to provide audio direction prompts (“prompts”) to the passengers utilizing the speakers coupled to the entertainment system. A system having both entertainment and navigation capabilities shall be referred to herein as an “infotainment” system.
In operation, the infotainment system typically provides entertainment at a user selected volume level. The user must typically either turn a knob or depress a button to vary the volume. In some cases, the entertainment and navigation systems may operate at different volume levels.
It has been noticed, however, that conversations between passengers may be interrupted by navigation prompts and/or entertainment content. This may lead to, for example, users missing navigation prompts because the user was in a conversation when the prompt was delivered. In addition, users may be forced to turn down radio volume and/or navigation prompts when having a conversation in the vehicle. In some cases, the user may actually silence the navigation prompts to avoid having conversations interrupted.